Service dogs?

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Does anyone here have experience with Autism and service dogs? I'm starting college and want to get one to help me navigate college life. To pull me out of a situation that is triggering or warn me before I go somewhere that might trigger a meltdown. I need a note from a doctor in order to have on at the school. Does anyone have experience with this? or experience with autism and service dogs in general? any advice or knowledge of this topic would be helpful. also, how do I approach my doctor about this and not get laughed at? What if they don't take my need seriously? Thank you

We had both a Behavioral Support(A psychiatric service dog)dog and a Autism dog before they were cruelly poisoned.

To be able to have one (of any accepted domestic animal type, I use dog) protected by the ADA (accompanying you, allowed in lease contracts, allowed on public transport/planes, allowed in school facilities) it must be a prescription from your specialist.
Therapy dogs (emotional support animal can be confused with) BTW to not have full rights or accesses if push comes to shove.
Service dog status comes from a the prescription (lining out that the patient has a life limiting disability) that (2) the animal can relieve by recognizing this disability and assist by doing a task or some type of actual work and that the animal (3) is trained in manner that it will not cause public disruption and is to be housebroken and leashed (unless it needs off lead freedom to perform tasks)

Our therapy dog Fatty ( a min pin of all things. Not a breed one thinks of as friend of sketchy toddler) was sent to advanced school to become a service dog. But he could not perform many autism dog functions for his small size and poor nose. The year they were poisoned we finally received Sari ( A doberman female), a 6 yr old Autism dog. She had mid level guide training, a type of lowjack chip, SaR training and was model citizen with added autism relief stim prevention training (including pressure). The 5 months we had her was AMAZING. But we are talking about a 50k invested dog got murdered while having an overnight while we were out of town. We are waaay back at the line for another (like never practically). I was lucky to get the doberman to ease my grooming and allergy problems.

A dog of Fatty's caliber self training is easier to get or have trained at little to no expense. Is probably enough for your needs and a portable size is helpful (under 24 in under 60lb). Professionally trained will have him more responsive to an action.

I myself had a migraine dog. I had alert 4 hours before cluster (aka get you arse home now gurl!). She was fatty's sister and service dog school drop out, the original dog. I was fostering her while she awaited rehoming and she happened t sense migraine. I kept her and then they heard about boo and gifted him Fatty. She wasn't fully ADA protected because she was very disruptive on occasion so was a under therapy dog umbrella. I had a nightmare move. I had to rehome Debi even tho I needed her because the Complex changing rule came after I was stuck there. An atty was able to protect Fatty and Sari's status.

Your dog, if you meet donation requirements, at minimum will have Obedience 2 & CGC to be widely accepted. As more people abuse the privilege, the restrictions tighten and more places are willing to take chance of ADA complaint. Always bring your prescription with you. Self trained is harder for accrediting and getting health provider agreement..., tho this varies by state of course.
A regular FP is not likely to prescribe. You need an autism specialist or a psychologist/psychiatrist you have good repoire with to do it.

Edit: not that therapy dog cert is not easy or enough... but do you want a dog you learned to lean on suddenly become a legal battle that may separate you from it as I had rehome my fairly critical Migraine dog of 4 years?
If a public place or apt thinks it is not a protected animal , and abuse is making many take chance to demand proof, the fallout may be too personally costly

http://www.psychdogpartners.org/resourc ... tions/laws


Debbi at Nursing home visiting my mom


Boo and Bitty Earnest Borgnine aka Fatty

A sick MF that should be glad they remained anonymous.
They were at my roomate's mother for weekend while we were out of town during some apt repair.

They were given hamburger laced with antifreeze. Fatty died overnight and Sari suffered until liver faliure 3 days later.
Both were well trained and did not bark. The house on cul de sac had been his mom's a long time. The neighbor with fence touching back corner didn't like dogs (they are filthy, noisy and disgusting was his kindest words during property line dispute 2 years earlier. But there had been no recent threats to be enough probable cause. She had 3 elderly dogs that were nonstop yappers (poo mix, yorkie mix and shi tzus) but not really loud by that decade. They were all in their late teens and were suspicious picky eaters. The youngest was not that loud and also ate some of the bad meat. Sari got lion share from sheer ability to gulp a bigger piece down.
This was in JAX Fl btw

T

so the guy just left out tainted meat.was he ever charged

Not enough probable cause to prove he threw it over fence (a 9 ft fence by the way, grandfathered in the original culdesac community). No fingerprints, no "recent" threats.
Police decided it was either a Doberman hater or thief trying to remove the big dog not realizing she was only a guest.

I think it was the sleazy neighbor but not enough proof to go thrash him to being handicapped and get the fines and record.
I now wonder if he was an "untouchable" already so cops gave him a pass for PC. : c At the time I assumed they really couldn't find enough. 4 other houses had outside dogs poisoned later that month.

It seems to me a pity that Autism Speaks can't use its vast funds for a service dog program to enrich the lives of those that they seem so intent on smearing and diminishing.

I have a service dog that monitors my glucose levels and vitals. It doesn't help with meltdowns or autism in its training, but in reality, it does. She is so attentive that it always feels like I have a loving companion that I can relate with better than another person.

I always thought that having a service animal would lead people to assume that I was weak or disabled and judge me, but in reality, it seems to make some people uncomfortable but nobody seems to reflect that back on me. The problems that I have were the opposite of the ones that I feared. I expected that because people know that they are supposed to ignore working dogs that they would but at least several times per day I have to fend off "dog people" who want to touch or stare at my loving assistant. I've had strangers tackle her under tables at restaurants and on dozens of different occasions, after I tell someone that they should not touch or distract her, they stand two feet away, talking to her and staring at her intently. When I explain that this is distracting behavior that gives the dog confused signals, they insist that the dog wants them to coo at it like it's a human baby. When in reality, this behavior makes her think that they think they are having a medical emergency or have a reward to offer her. Worse, sometimes they do reward her for the wrong behavior.

I've spent years mastering "the look of indifference" and ignoring strangers as they talk to me or the dog. For the first few weeks, strangers would approach me from a block away and start asking me personal medical questions but nowadays my neutral facial expression seems to create some distance between myself and strangers.

Mostly they're only offered for children and demand lists are high, unless you have an additional disability for which you're eligible for a dog and then you may be able to get them to add some additional tasks.

I *might* be getting a service dog through this route but don't want to disclose too much until they've made their decision because I'm under the severity threshold for hearing dogs - moderate rather than severe/profound. (They're considering the impact of my ASD alongside it to make their decision.)